The one occasion that former Vice President Mike Pence properly “lost it” with Donald Trump was after the former president threw a crumpled newspaper article at him, a new book claims.
Trump launched the paper at Pence in 2018 because he thought the story detailing the hiring of his ex-adviser Corey Lewandowski to Pence’s political committee made him look weak, the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender said in “Frankly, We Did Win This Election”: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost.
The Journal published an essay adapted from the book on Thursday.
Pence “lost it,” wrote Bender.
The then-vice president reminded Trump that Jared Kushner, the then-president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, had asked him to hire Lewandowski and that they’d talked about it over lunch, per the book.
Pence reportedly “picked up the article and threw it back at Mr. Trump,” wrote Bender, citing administration officials. “He leaned toward the president and pointed a finger a few inches from his chest. ‘We walked you through every detail of this,’ Mr. Pence snarled. ‘We did this for you—as a favour. And this is how you respond? You need to get your facts straight.’”
Bender also in his book, set for release next week, said Trump praised Adolf Hitler during a 2018 trip to France and said he wanted soldiers to “beat the fuck” out of and shoot civil rights protesters who took to the streets after the police killing of George Floyd.